Edger rolling mill



J. R. ADAIR Jan. 23, 1968 EDGER ROLLI NG MILL 2 Sheets-Shet 1 Filed Aug. 5. 1966 INVENTOR. v JAMES R. ADA/A BY ATTOR/VfY.

J. R. ADAIR Jan. 23, 1968 EDGER ROLLING MILL 147' 7' ORA E V.

United States Patent 3,364,714 EDGER ROLLING MlLL .larues Richard Adair, Pittsburgh, Pa., assiguor to United Engineering and Foundry Company, Pittsburgh, Pa, 5 a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Aug. 5, i966, Ser. No. 570,500 Claims priority, application Great Britain, .l'an. 14, 1966, 1,971/66 7 Claims. (Cl. 72-238) ABSTRACT (3F THE DIStILfiSURE A vertical rolling mill which includes a housing for supporting a pair of cooperative, vertically disposed rolls having choclzs rotatably supporting the rolls in the housing. Adjusting screws are employed to horizontally posi tion the rolls in a common vertical plane. A drive for each of the rolls is pivotally supported by the housing remote from the vertical plane and extending toward the rolls there is provided a torque output gear which is displaceable in an arcuate path. The construction of the related elements being such that the aforesaid arcuate path is disposed in an approximate tangential relation with the aforesaid vertical plane. In this manner a spindle which interconnects each drive with a roll need only accommodate small angular misali nment between the roll and drive.

For the purpose of describing the present invention its utilization in connection with a blooming and slabbing mill has been selected. It will be appreciated that the advantages fiowing from the invention can be utilized in other types of vertical mills. High production blooming and slabbing mills must now be designed to handle ingots ranging from 90 inches maximum width to inches minimum width. The ingots thickness may range from to 50 inches and weigh in the neighborhood of from to 80 thousand pounds. Such mills comprise a horizontal mill, and in many cases an attached vertical edger, the latter having opposed vertical rolls for reducing the vertical sides of the ingot as it enters or leaves the horizontal rolls of the horizontal mill. \Vhile usually the edger is secured to the horizontal mill, in some cases it is supported on its own foundation.

in designing edger mills of the type presently being dfscussed, that is edger mills that are designed to roll products of a large range of widths and, hence, must have the capability of a wide range of movement, one of the most serious problems that has been encountered, both from a design standpoint as well as an operational maintenance standpoint, is the matter of the drive for the vertical rolls. In the past there has been provided basically two types of such drives, one wherein a stationary drive is arranged at the top of the mill, in which the rolls are adapted to he traversed towards and away from the center of the mill relative to the stationary drive and to permit this, spindles were provided with costly and trouble-prone universal couplings at their opposite ends. In this case the range of transverse movement of the vertical rolls and th allowable angle of spindle angularity determine the length of the spindles. In large edger mills these factors necessitate extremely long spindles which increase the height of the edger mill inordinately. An example of such a design is illustrated in US. Patent No. 2,752,804 which issued to H. I. Kalberkamp on July 3, 1956.

In the second form of a driving arrangement for the vertical edger, the drive itself is mounted so as to allow it to move with the rolls as the rolls are traversed towards and away from the center of the mill in accordance with the particular width ingot being rolled. In this arice rangement it will be appreciated that spindles can be maintained on the same vertical axes of the rolls, and, hence, assume little or no angularity so that there is no necessity to provide extremely long spindles. However, there must be provided a means for traversing the entire drive across the top of the mill which in certain mills makes the design of doubtful utility. While this disadvantage is an important consideration in smaller edger mills, it becomes acute in mills designed to roll very large ingots which require extremely large and cumbersome drives since it necessitates not only a large capacity means to move the drive back and forth across the mill, but a special and costly mill construction. An example of such a driving arrangement is illustrated in US. Patent No. 2,195,502 which issued to J. A. Smitmans on April 2, 1940.

The present invention provides a mill which overcomes both of the above-noted disadvantages of existing mills.

In the utilization of the present invention, the axes of driving spindles are maintained in a very small angular relationship with the axes of the rolls and at the same time the major components of the drive for the vertical rolls are maintained stationary during the transverse movement of the vertical rolls. This is accomplished in the present invention by providing swingable drives for the vertical rolls wherein, while the rolls are traversed horizontally the spindles and gears associated therewith are adapted to pivot or swing about mating driving gears. In this arrangement the angularity of the spindles during their swinging movement is very small, i.e. 3 degrees, in certain cases of the order of /z-degree thus allowing the employment if desired of a very economical and more efiicient universal coupling.

More specifically, the present invention provides in a vertical edger having a pair of cooperative vertical rolls, driving spindles connected to the rolls at their one end by very simple universal couplings, a similar coupling secured to the opposite ends of the spindles, said latter couplings meshing with separate driven spur gears, said driven spur gears rotatably carried by pivotal frames which allow the upper portion of the spindles along with their associated spur gears to swing in an are relative to the associated roll, said spur gears meshing with separate spur pinions which in turn mesh with separate driving spur gears, the latter gears, being mounted on common axes with the points of rotation of said frames, said driving spur gears mounted on a common shaft with separate first miter gears which mesh with second miter gears which in turn are connected to a common drive shaft, and separate means associated with the frames for swinging them about their pivotal axes, including means for resisting the tendency of the frames to swing, said means being correlated with means provided for traversing the rolls towards and away from the vertical center line of the mill. In the preferred form the frames are rotatably mounted on the primary frame of the edger.

Drawings These objects, as well as other novel features and advantages of the present invention, will be better appreciated when the following description thereof is read in light of the accompanying drawings of which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevational View taken along lines II of FIGURE 2 and illustrating a vertical edger mill incorporating the features of the present invention, and

FIGURE 2 is a plan view taken along lines IIII of FIGURE 1.

Description of invention With reference to the drawings there is provided a pair of spaced-apart identical housings it) and 11 of a slabbing mill 12, one of the horizontal rolls of the mill 12 being shown at 13. Secured to the housings 1i and 11 at one side thereof are a pair of horizontal spaced-apart edger mill housings 14 and 15 which include the customary windows into which there is received vertically arranged rolls 16 and 17. These rolls having vertical rolling faces that engage and reduce the vertical faces of the ingot. The rolls 16 and 17 are rotatably received at their ends in bearing chock assemblies 18, the chocks being engaged by the ends of individual horizontally arranged screws 19 which are rotated by a worm wheel set 21 which in turn is driven by a motor, not shown. The screws 19, as usual, are splined to allow lateral movement and are employed to advance the rolls 16 and 17 toward and away from the ingot which is the working stroke of the rolls, and to receive the rolling pressures for transmission to the housings 14 and 15. On the screw side of the checks 18, the chocks of each roll are connected together by a bar 22 of roll pull back assemblies, which in turn are secured to a piston cylinder assembly 23. In operation of the piston cylinder assembly 23, the chocks 18 are urged against the screws 19 thereby assuring that the rolls will be held against the screws to establish the desired roll gap.

With reference particularly to FIGURE 1, it will be noted that the upper portion of the rolls 16 and 17 have pods which allow universal action and which are drivenly engaged by similar pods formed on the lower ends of vertically arranged spindles 24 and 25. The spindles extend towards the top of the mill where, on their upper ends there are formed external tooth members of universal couplings 26 of a design such as the aforesaid pod-type roll spindle couplings or the like. These tooth members mesh with splines formed in extension members 27. The couplings 26 are of a generally standard construction, designed to allow a small degree of deflection of the spindles of the order of /2 degree and preferably not exceeding three degrees. The extension members 27 of the couplings 26 are actually projections of spur gears 28 which take the form of torque output elements and, as shown, are provided with internal openings 29 through which the spindles 24 and 25 extend. The spur gears 28 are rotatably received in separate movable frames 31. The frames 31, as indicated in FIGURE 2, take the form of swingable or pivotal arms wherein they are adapted to swing about vertical axes 32 located toward the front of the mill. In order to allow free swinging movement of the frames 31, they are provided with bearing surfaces that separate them from a horizontal frame 33 which in turn is stationarily mounted on the edger mill housings 14 and 15.

As indicated in FIGURE 1, the frames 31 are adapted to be swung about the axes 32 by virtue of power driven screws 34. The screws are rotated separately by worm wheel sets 35 which are connected to the motor, not shown, for the screws 19 of the mill by a vertical drive shaft 35. Thus the screws 34 move in unison with the screws 19 which move the rolls relative to the vertical enter line of the mill. The end of the screws 34 engage the frames 31 to move the latter. In this construction the frames 31 including the gears 28 and spindles 24 and 25 are adapted to be swung about the axes 32 at a radial distance indicated at 32a, shown in FIGURE 2 while the rolls are caused to move under the influence of the mill screws 1'9. In the illustrated embodiment of the present invention the fixed radial distance 32a is larger than a predetermined distance between the axis 32 and the vertical plane of the rolls. Moreover, this predetermined distance is approximately equal to twice the distance of the working stroke of one of the rolls 16 and 17. In order to maintain the screws 34 in contact with the frames 31 and assure that the upper portions of the spindles will always follow the rolls there are provided piston cylinder assemblies 40 which are connected to the frames 31. The cylinders 49 urge the frames in a direction so as to maintain the frames 31 in contact with the screws 34.

The frames 31 are also adapted to rotatably receive small spur pinions 41 which are adapted to transmit the driving power from spur gears 42. The gears 42 are mounted co-axially with the axes 32 about which the frames 31 rotate and are received in a vertically arranged shaft 43 which extends substantially parallel to the spindles 24 and 25. On the lower ends of the shaft 43 there are provided the first of two miter gears 44. The miter gears 44 are adapted to mesh with vertically arranged miter gears 45 which in turn are connected to a main drive shaft 46 which furnishes the necessary driving power to the spindles from an electrical motor, not shown.

It can be appreciated from the above description of the edger mill employing the features of the present invention that not only does the invention allow a substantial reduction in the length of the spindles and an elimination of complicated and inefficient universal couplings, but it eliminates the need of a large capacity prime mover and the construction for allowing the entire drive assembly to be traversed. In the present invention substantially all of the components of the drive are stationary and the only members that are actually moved are the frames 31 and the spindles 24 and 25 and the two spur gears 23 and 41. This design not only affords a much simpler and more economical construction, but more important, it solves the very seriou problem of providing an acceptable driving arrangement for edger mills of extremely heavy capacity.

Another feature of the present invention has to do with the simplicity by which the rolls can be removed and replaced from the mill. In this case, in order to remove the rolls, the frames 31 are moved to their extreme inner positions, and extend beyond the working stroke of the rolls, so as to provide an opening 47 in the center of the mill. This is illustrated in phantom in FIGURE 2. The spindles are then disconnected from the rolls and the rolls are traversed one at a time toward the center of the mill and into the opening. After this, the rolls are one at a time disconnected from the pull back cylinders 23, and lifted bodily through the opening.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle and operation of my invention and have illustrated and described what I consider to represent the best embodiment thereof. However, I desired to have it understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. A rolling mill comprising:

a housing formed with a longitudinally extending window having a predetermined length;

a pair of vertically disposed rolls having a bearing chock assembly secured to their ends for rotatably supporting the rolls in said window;

roll adjusting means carried by said housing for moving said rolls through a working stroke in a horizontal direction and in a common vertical plane;

a pivotally supported drive mean for each of said rolls which has its pivotal axis of rotation displaced a predetermined distance from said vertical plane;

each said pivotal axis falling substantially within the opposite longitudinal ends of said window;

means for supporting said drive means;

each of said drive means, includes a torque output element, displaced a fixed radial distance from said axis and pivotally displaceable in an arcuate path about said axis;

said fixed radial distance approximating said predetermined distance and extending in a direction generally towards said vertical plane such that a portion of said arcuate path extends generally parallel to the vertical plane during a part of the working stroke of said rolls;

means for pivotally displacing said torque output elements in said arcuate path whereby the torque output elements are caused to substantially follow said rolls upon operation of the said roll adjusting means; and

a spindle for each drive having their one end connectable to said rolls and their other end connectable to said torque output elements, the roll end of said spindles moving horizontally with the rolls and the torque output element ends thereof moving in said arcuate path with said torque output elements.

2. A rolling mill according to claim 1 wherein said predetermined distance i approximately equal to two times the working stroke of one of said rolls.

3. A rolling mill according to claim 1 wherein said fixed radial distance is greater than said predetermined distance.

4. A rolling mill according to claim 1 wherein each of said drive means further comprises:

a drive housing pivotally displaceable about said axis;

a first gear rotatably supported by said housing and having its rotational axis concentric with said pivotal a screw adjusting means carried by said housing and engageable With said drive means;

a piston cylinder assembly carried by said housing for urging said drive means about its pivotal axis toward said screw adjusting means.

6. A rolling mill according to claim 5 further comprising means associated with each of said screw adjusting means and said roll adjusting means for causing a synchronous operation, whereby adjustment of the roll is accompanied by a corresponding pivotal displacement of the drive means 7. A rolling mill according to claim 1 wherein the angular displacement of the roll end of each said spindle with respect to the torque output element of said spindle is always maintained not to exceed two degrees.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,387,650 8/192 Koelkebeck 72-235 2,195,502 4/1940 Smitmans 72238 2,583,844 1/1952 Hill et al 72239 2,752,804 7/1956 Kalber Komp 72239 3,143,011 8/1964 Sieger 72-238 3,152,494 10/1964 Petereit et al. 72'238 3,160,037 12/1964 Russell et al. 72238 3,222,901 12/1965 Hill 72-239 RICHARD J. HERBST, Primary Examiner.

3D A. RUDERMAN, A ssistanz Examiner. 

